This is the photo I edited to make my blog badge for my linky. I hadn’t realised how different it was until I put them next to each other. I edited this in photoshop. With photoshop you can create layers and so cut out the background. I also adjusted the levels to make it look more like a drawing and added the text.

There are a few tutorials on how to make a blog badge, however, I couldn’t find one which showed the whole process starting with a photo. I used this tutorial from Science Sparks.
First resize the image. I did this in flickr using basic effects. Make sure one dimension is around 200 and that creates a good size which will fit in your side bar.
Once you’re happy with the image click on the share button. Go to Grab the HTML Code. Copy and paste this to where you want to display the badge. This will put the picture into your post.
Then change the highlighted section of your code into the URL you want your badge to link to, this will probably be your home page or the page of your linky.
To make a box so people can grab the code just paste this below and change the highlighted section putting in the whole code for your badge.